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TIM CHALLIES and JOSH BYERSwith JOEY SCHWARTZ

A VISUAL THEOLOGY

GUIDETO THE

BIBLESEEING AND KNOWING

GOD’S WORD

9780310577966_VisualTheologyGTTB_int_SC.indd 5 1/16/19 9:41 AM

ZONDERVAN

A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible Copyright © 2019 by Tim Challies and Josh Byers

ISBN 978-0-310-57796-6 (softcover)

Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Cover design: Studio Gearbox Interior design and illustrations: Josh Byers

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A VISUAL THEOLOGY GUIDE TO THE BIBLE8

When it comes to books that stick around, none can match the Bible. Its words

have been treasured through the ages, committed to memory, printed in scrolls,

bound in books, narrated on tape, and programmed in apps. When it comes to books

that sell, the Bible stands apart. Year after year, its sales skyrocket past the hottest

New York Times bestsellers. When it comes to books with influence, the Bible is equally

unique, its fingerprints manifest in the laws and constitutions of great nations, in key

literary works and defining treatises. In endurance, influence, and sales, all other books

pale in comparison.1


9INTRODUCTION


11INTRODUCTION

The Bible tells us who we are, why we exist, why we are so messy, how we are to relate

to God, and how everything will someday be made right. It is reliable when it describes

past events, theological when it describes divine truths, and inspirational when it calls

for a heartfelt response.

The Bible makes monumental claims about itself. It describes itself as light to guide the

lost, medicine to revive the sick, wisdom to correct the foolish, inspiration to cheer the

sorrowful, balm to heal the blind. It insists it is more valuable than gold and sweeter

than honey. It declares it is able to teach truth and correct error, that it will guide us

away from unethical behavior and toward behavior that serves and blesses others.



A host of key historical figures attest to

the Bible’s unique significance. England’s

Queen Elizabeth II asked, “To what

greater inspiration and counsel can we

turn than to the imperishable truth to be

found in this treasure house, the Bible?”2

Abraham Lincoln declared, “[The Bible] is

the best gift God has given to man. All the

good the Saviour gave to the world was

communicated through this book. But for

it we could not know right from wrong.”3

Far above the world’s greatest leaders and

powers and institutions stands the time-

less wisdom of the Bible.

This is a book about the Bible, and espe-

cially what the Bible contains. We have

prepared it as enthusiasts who love the

Bible, who attempt to understand it

rightly and obey it truly. We have pre-

pared it as pastors who love people and

long to help them discover how the

Bible answers their toughest questions

and satisfies their deepest longings. We

have prepared it as Christians, who have

banked all we have and all we are on the

Bible’s great claims. We have prepared it

as partners— an author and an artist—

who each bring our individual passion to

bear, one in the medium of words and the

other in the medium of art.

If you are new to the Bible, we hope to

motivate you to explore it for yourself, to

read some of its key passages, to consider

its claims, and to understand its most

important themes. We will guide you from

the beginning to the end to show how its

many authors, hundreds of characters,

and thousands of chapters together nar-

rate one grand story that makes sense of

this world and establishes your place in it.

If you are experienced with the Bible, we

hope to motivate you to explore the Bible

again, to read it with clearer eyes, and to

come to a deeper appreciation of its cen-

tral themes and supernatural cohesion.

We know you will enjoy reading about this

sacred Book and studying the graphics

that illustrate it.


Whether you’ve read the Bible through a hundred times or have never read a single word, we invite you to join us as we describe and display the most im-portant, most influential, most popular, and most life- changing book the world has ever known. Come and meet the

Bible— or meet it all over again.


CHAPTER ONE

TRUSTING THE BIBLEPART ONE


CHAPTER ONE

TRUSTING THE BIBLEPART ONE What Christians call “the Bible” or “the Holy Bible” isn’t the only bible in the world,

is it? Browse your local bookstore and you’ll find all kinds of books with the

word bible in the title. A quick search turns up The Furniture Bible, a guide to identify-

ing, restoring, and caring for antique furniture; The Metal Detecting Bible, the definitive

guide for discovering lost valuables; and the Jeep Owner’s Bible, a guide for getting the

most out of your Jeep. From these examples we see that employing the word bible rep-

resents a claim of authority. A bible is an authoritative source of wisdom or knowledge.

The implication is that you can’t properly restore furniture without The Furniture Bible,

and you can’t hope to tap every strength of your Jeep unless you read the Jeep Owner’s

Bible.

The word bible is derived from the ancient Greek word biblos, which refers not to a parti-

cular book but to the papyrus used to create an early form of paper. Soon the meaning of

that word had been broadened to describe a book or scroll and then narrowed to refer to

a sacred book or scroll. The word found its way into Latin and other European languages.

Eventually, it came to refer to one particular book— the Christian Bible. There may be a

Jeep Owner’s Bible and a Metal Detecting Bible, but there is only one Bible that needs no

further explanation or qualification. And when we do wish to qualify it, we add the word

holy, which means the Bible is set apart, a book unlike any other.

So, what is this Bible? Let’s begin to answer that question by looking at the Bible’s struc-

ture and purpose.


WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF THE BIBLE?

The Bible is much like any

other book in that it has

internal cohesion. From

beginning to end, it pro-

vides a unified picture of

who God is, who we are,

and what we need most. It

is not merely a collection

of words, sayings, and sto-

ries tossed together, but

information that has been

carefully collected and

placed within a structure.

The Bible moves from

descriptions of the most

distant past to predictions

of a coming future. As it

does that, it tells the story

of humanity and the God

who created us.1

TESTAMENTS

Its broadest structure is a

division into two “Testa-

ments,” the Old Testament

and the New Testament.

The word we translate as

“testament” could more


accurately be translated as “covenant,” so

when we speak of Old Testament and New

Testament, we are really speaking of Old

Covenant and New Covenant. A covenant

is an agreement between two parties that

governs the terms of their relationship.

The Old Testament details the estab-

lishment of the Old Covenant and the

promises of the coming Christ, and the

New Testament describes the inaugura-

tion of the New Covenant that God had

planned all along. This shows why the

Bible is divided in this way. The Old Testa-

ment includes all those parts of the Bible

that were completed before the birth and

death of Jesus Christ, and the New Testa-

ment includes all those parts of the Bible

that were completed after his birth and

death.

BOOKS

Each of the Testaments is made up of

what we call “books.” This is perhaps not

the most helpful term, since some of these

“books” are actually letters, some are col-

lections of songs and poetry, and some are

only a few hundred words long. Still, that’s

the word that has stuck. There are thirty-

nine books in the Old Testament and

twenty- seven in the New Testament for a

total of sixty- six. The Old Testament com-

poses roughly three- quarters of the Bible,

and the New Testament approximately



one- quarter. The Old Testament books tell of the creation of the world, the founding

of the Israelites, the establishment of those people in the promised land, their special

relationship with God, their disobedience to God, and their resulting captivity by hos-

tile nations. A constant theme is the promise of a Messiah who will fully and finally

liberate the Israelites from danger and oppression. The New Testament books tell of the

birth, life, and death of Jesus; they tell of the work of the earliest Christians to spread

their message; they instruct Christians in how to live and tell how God intends to bring

history to its close. A recurring theme is that Jesus is the Messiah who was promised in

the Old Testament.

NAMES

Each of the books in the Bible has a name. The books were not often given names at

the time they were written, so they took them on over time as people read and studied

them. They are often named after the author of the book or after one of its key charac-

ters. Thus, Isaiah is both by and about a prophet named Isaiah; Luke is an account of the


19CHAPTER ONE • WHAT IS THE BIBLE?

life of Jesus written by an early Christian

historian named Luke. Sometimes books

are given a name that summarizes their

content. Genesis describes the genesis, or

beginning, of the world and of God’s cho-

sen people, the Israelites; Psalms contains

a collection of songs of worship known

as psalms; Acts describes the acts of the

earliest Christians. The New Testament

letters are usually titled according to the

recipient, though sometimes they are

titled according to the sender. Ephesians

is Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus;

1 Timothy is Paul’s first of two letters to

his protégé, Timothy; 2 John is John’s

second of three letters to an unspecified

church.2

CHAPTERS AND VERSES

Books are divided into chapters, and

chapters are divided into verses. These

divisions were not present when the

books were written but were added much

later to assist with finding a specific place

within the Bible. Today you may see a ref-

erence like John 3:16. John is the name

of the book, 3 is the chapter, and 16 is the

verse. Thus you could open your Bible to

the book of John, turn to chapter three

and verse 16 to find what may be the best-

loved sentence in the entire Bible.


GENRES

If you visit a bookstore today and browse around, you’ll find books divided into genres—books of

different styles or with different purposes: historical novels, home decorating, modern history, and

so on. Likewise, the biblical books fall into a number of genres. They include:


21CHAPTER ONE • WHAT IS THE BIBLE?

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE BIBLE?

One of history’s most influential Christian theologians began his magnum opus with

this sentence: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wis-

dom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”3 When he spoke of

“wisdom,” he was not referring to mere facts and stats, to the kind of trivia that might

create a Jeopardy winner. He was not referring to only the kind of life lessons that may

be passed down from a grandfather to a grandson. He was referring to something much

greater and much more significant. Properly understood, wisdom is knowledge of the

world as it really is. It is a correct knowledge of who God is and who we are in relation

to him. And further, it is an understanding of how we are to live accordingly. In that

way wisdom is not mere knowledge, but knowledge that has been deliberately put into

action.

The Bible exists to impart true and sound wisdom from God to humanity. It is through

the Bible that we come to a correct knowledge of God and of ourselves.

If we are to properly understand ourselves, we need knowledge that comes from outside

ourselves. If we are to properly understand this world, we need knowledge that comes

from outside this world. The Bible is the source of that knowledge. It is God’s revelation

of himself.

In chapter 8, we will say much more about the grand story of the Bible. But for now, it’s

important to know that the purpose of the Bible is to show mankind who God is and his

plan to save mankind from their sin through his Son, Jesus Christ.



In the dark corners of jail, the apostle

Paul pens a letter to the church at

Philippi. Through tears, he commands

the church to rejoice in suffering and

live in unity. After writing his final line,

which would eventually be translated into

English as “the grace of the Lord Jesus

Christ be with your spirit,” he drops his

pen and prays.

Nearly two thousand years later, a teen-

age boy sits down in church, pulls out

his iPhone, clicks on the “Bible” app, and

scrolls down to the bottom of Philippians.

As the preacher reads, he follows along:

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be

with your spirit.”

How did these words get from Paul’s cal-

loused hands into a twenty- first century

smartphone? For that matter, how did all

sixty- six of the ancient letters and books

within the Bible survive into the pres-

ent day?

The Bible was not delivered to us from

the sky. It did not come to us fully formed

from the hands of an angel. The Bible

came from men who wrote the words of

God. It was communicated in ancient

languages, and it was preserved over the

centuries. And yet, while the Bible is a his-

torical artifact, we can be confident that

the Bible we have today is far more: it is

the very words of God.

THE BIBLE WAS GOD- BREATHED

In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul writes to his pro-

tégé, “All Scripture is God- breathed and

is useful for teaching, rebuking, correct-

ing and training in righteousness.” This

beautiful imagery shows that all of the

holy Scriptures (graphē) are spoken out by

God, so that every word comes from his

breath. This is why it’s no stretch to read

a passage of Scripture with the preface,

“God says . . .” If it’s in the Bible, then God

spoke it, and he continues to speak those

words into the lives of his children today

(Hebrews 4:12).1


This characteristic of Scripture is often

called inspiration, although the term has

become so muddled in modern usage

that God- breathed may be a better term.

The Old Testament prophets and the

disciples were certainly not “inspired”

in the same way that a country music

star is “inspired” to write her hit song.

The word inspired today has come to

connote a vague influence, but Scripture

is not just influenced by God. Scripture is

spoken by God.



How were the Scriptures God- breathed?

There are some instances when God audi-

bly dictated words to a prophet or apostle,

which were then recorded word for word

(Isaiah 38:4–6; Revelation 2:1, 8, 12).

But in many cases, it’s unclear exactly

how God spoke through his prophets. As

the author of Hebrews notes, God spoke

through his prophets “in various ways”

(Hebrews 1:1).

In most cases, God didn’t simply dictate

his Word and employ the prophet or

author as a scribe. God usually breathed

out his Word using the personality, style,

and circumstances of the author. Luke, for

example, wrote his gospel using histori-

cal research, eyewitness interviews, and

orderly reporting— and yet, Paul quotes

the gospel of Luke as holy Scripture

(1 Timothy 5:18). Paul himself wrote the

Word of God out of the anguish of suf-

fering and persecution (Ephesians 6:20;

Colossians 4:18; 2 Timothy 2:9).

God ordained and oversaw the personal-

ity of the authors, their circumstances,

their style, their training, and their pro-

cess of writing to bring about his Word.

The human authors were really writing,

and God was really breathing.

THE BIBLE WAS HUMANLY COMMUNICATED

While the Bible is from God, it is for

humans. God breathed out his Word to

communicate with us. This means that

God chose written words in human lan-

guage as his primary way of speaking to

us. The Bible was written in two primary

languages— Hebrew and Greek— and one

secondary language, Aramaic.

Almost all of the Old Testament was orig-

inally written in Hebrew. Coming from

the Semitic family of languages, Hebrew

was spoken and written by God’s people,

the Israelites, until around the third cen-

tury BC.

While most of the Scriptures are writ-

ten in Hebrew and Greek, Aramaic also

plays a significant role in the Scriptures.

Aramaic place names appear throughout

the Old Testament, and three extended

passages of Aramaic appear in the books

of Daniel and Ezra.2

Aramaic is perhaps most significant

because it was the most likely spoken lan-

guage of Jesus and his disciples.3 While

Greek was used in writing because of

its universal understanding, there is no


29CHAPTER TWO • HOW WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN?

doubt that the incarnate Lord and the

apostles spoke in Aramaic, as is clear in

the use of the Aramaic words “Cephas,”

“Matthew,” “Abba,” and “Maranatha.”

Most memorably, Jesus cried in Aramaic

on the cross: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”4

The world into which Jesus was born was

especially prepared for the spread of the

gospel and the Scriptures. Alexander the

Great’s conquests from Greece to India had

spread Greek culture and language across

the globe so that by the New Testament

era, Greek was spoken throughout the

entire Mediterranean.

While Hebrew was a language used mostly

by the people of Israel, Greek was the lan-

guage for all people. As God extended his

covenant promises to all nations and com-

manded his people to proclaim good news

to the ends of the earth, the language of

his written word shifted to accommodate

this transition.5 For the gospel to go to

all nations, it had to be understood by

all nations, and to be understood by the

people of all nations, it was written in

Greek.

It’s important to note that the New

Testament authors often quote and make

use of the Septuagint, a Greek translation

of the Old Testament, rather than the

Hebrew Scriptures. This shows that while

the biblical languages are significant,

it was always expected that they would

be translated into various languages so

that all people could understand it. As

John Frame writes, “The Bible does not

assume that God’s Word is untranslata-

ble. Rather (in keeping with the nature of

Christianity as a missionary religion), the

Bible itself uses multiple languages.”6 God

spoke his very words into Greek, Hebrew,

and Aramaic through the biblical authors

so that he could speak to us in our lan-

guage today.

THE BIBLE WAS CAREFULLY PRESERVED

But how can we know that the Bible that

God breathed out and that men recorded

has been accurately preserved for us?

How can we be sure that God’s Word has

remained God’s Word from the time it

was first written to this present day?

THE PRESERVATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

While recent scholarship has questioned

the preservation of the original manu-

scripts of the Bible, the truth is that the



Bible has more evidence for its integrity than any other ancient book.7 Recent archaeo-

logical findings confirm the faithfulness of the Bible we have in our possession.

In 1946, a Bedouin shepherd discovered a handful of ancient scrolls in the caves of

Qumran. A deeper search over the next two years led to the finding of the Dead Sea

Scrolls, the greatest manuscript discovery of the modern era.8 Archaeologists found

thousands of biblical fragments dating back to as early as the second century BC, includ-

ing the entire book of Isaiah and pieces of every Old Testament book except Esther.9

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical scholars had to rely on the ninth

century AD Masoretic Text in order to translate the original Hebrew manuscripts into


31CHAPTER TWO • HOW WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN?

other languages. The Dead Sea Scrolls

gave scholars a fresh opportunity to com-

pare much earlier manuscripts with the

Masoretic Text.

Many of the scrolls demonstrated a strik-

ing similarity to the Masoretic Text. In the

book of Isaiah, for example, the Dead Sea

Scrolls lined up exactly about 95 percent

of the time. The 5 percent of differences

between the two texts were primarily the

result of obvious scribal errors.

What is the significance of this? It serves

as just one of many evidences that over

the course of many centuries, the Hebrew

text was preserved. Because of the sim-

ilarities in the manuscript, we can be

confident that the Old Testament we have

today is an extremely reliable copy of the

original Hebrew Scriptures.

THE PRESERVATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

While the manuscript evidence for the

Old Testament is encouraging, the manu-

script evidence of the New Testament is

unsurpassed by any other ancient book.

There are more than 5,700 Greek manu-

scripts containing either parts or all of the

New Testament text.10 Compare this to

Homer’s Iliad, which only has 1,757 manu-

scripts in existence, or Beowulf, which

comes to us from only one manuscript.

The wealth of manuscript evidence for

the New Testament provides us with a

tremendously accurate rendering of the

original copies. While there are scribal

variants in many of these manuscripts,

most of the differences are insignificant

errors such as misspellings and changes

in word order.11 Because we have so many

manuscripts, biblical scholars are able to

determine the wording of the original

text in the vast majority of cases.12

FROM GOD TO YOU

While thousands of years have passed

since God breathed out the Old and New

Testament Scriptures, they remain the

living, perfect Word of God today. Though

the Scriptures have passed through

countless scribes and many forms— from

papyrus to paper to phone— you can be

confident that the Word you read today

is the very Word that was breathed out

by God and written by the prophets and

apostles.


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